Wisynco withdraws court action over campaign against sugary drinks

Livern Barrett, Senior Gleaner Writer

Wisynco Group Limited has withdrawn the legal action it filed against the Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ) over the public education campaign ‘Are You Drinking Yourself Sick’.

It has also agreed to pay the legal costs for the foundation, a non-profit organisation.

Chairman of Wisynco William Mahfood said the decision was made after the heart foundation filed court papers indicating that it had “inadvertently and unintentionally” included the CranWata beverage in a social media post related to the campaign.

READ: Why Wisynco wants court to halt ad campaign

Mahfood said the foundation went further to indicate that it has taken the necessary steps to ensure the post was no longer accessible on the Internet and that no other “offending” material related to the beverage would be published.

Lawyers for both sides appeared in the Supreme Court today when, according to Mahfood, his company accepted the sworn statement of the foundation.

“We realised at that time that we needed to no longer pursue any claim against the HFJ and withdrew our claim,” he told The Gleaner.

Wisynco triggered public backlash last week when The Gleaner first reported that it had filed legal action against the foundation to prevent the non-government organisation from repeating information posted on Instagram last month as part of its campaign to warn Jamaicans about the harmful health effects of excessive sugar intake.

The Jamaican conglomerate asserted the post conveyed inaccurate information about the sugar content in its CranWata beverage and claimed, as a result, that it was defamatory.

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